Picking up those brushes again.

Hi and welcome to the occasional mutterings of Dave Doc, a military modeller and some time gamer. Gaming and model making has given me a real education, History & Geography(obvious really), Artistry, Politics, Economics, Logistics, Project Management -you try building miniature armies without the last 3.

I will use the blog to record my creations & the odd occasion I actually do some gaming.

I have always been inspired by the aesthetic side of gaming. Playing on well constructed terrain using excellently painted units is always a joy.

Sunday, 9 August 2015

I've got a lovely bunch of....

Coconuts ...well Palm trees at least. It seems summer has turned up this weekend which allowed me the opportunity to work in the garden on some terrain items for the Sudan.

I picked up a few packs of 9cm and 13cm palm trees from e-bay for £21 about 100 pieces altogether. Not bad as sent from China too. I pinned and glued these to 2mm MDF bases from Warbases with a range of sizes on the bases , and the odd few I also cut down and extra cm or so to give variety. A bit of PVA and sand added , which is then given a light colour dry brush. Once all dry , I gave them a hit with some Matt varnish.

Next up I wanted to make some Acacia trees/bushes, that could be found across Sudan and were used to make Zaribas. A few years ago I had picked up a pile of Woodland Scenics tree armatures, so some of these were twisted into a rough shape, hot glued to bases, and sprayed a dark grey. I then hot glued onto the branches some rubberised horsehair , and shaped and pulled it about , this was then sprayed dark grey too. Everything is then given a light colour drybrush. Neat PVA is painted onto the horsehair and I then added some brown leave scatter (I will do some more with green as well I think). Basing is straight PVA and sand again. One everything was dry I hit the foliage with some extra firm hold hairspray which will reduce any chance of it dropping off.

If you are interested , but can't find rubberised horsehair in your usual model outlets , try looking for upholstery suplliers. I picked up a sheet that was 6 foot by 4 , and an inch thick for £30. It will last me an age!

I have based these on hex bases to easily allow me to create differing shape collections of them .

Dave, they look excellent. I like using rubberised horsehair as well, although the hairspray idea for the leaf scatter is a really good one which I didn't know about. I shall have to try that. The palm trees and the bushes look brilliant. Really effective.